1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to air conditioning systems. In particular, the invention relates to the complementary combination of heat pipe and evaporative cooling technologies to produce an evaporative cooler which efficiently functions under environmental conditions normally considered the operating preserve of compressor operated, refrigerant cooling systems.
2. Prior Art
Those who live in hot, dry regions are familiar with the evaporative cooler. These coolers typically function by forcing fan driven air to pass through an evaporative cooling pad which has been saturated with water. The hot air passing through the pad transfers heat to the water producing a change of state in the water from a liquid to a water vapor. The evaporative cooling technology is well known and, in the disclosure which follows, a familiarity with that technology is assumed. Thus, air blowers, water circulating pumps, piping, spray nozzles, catch reservoirs, and the like have not been delineated or illustrated. Such items known to the prior art are utilized with the present invention in manner already well established.
Heat pipes are also well known to the prior art. These are simple and inexpensive devices which can transport thermal energy at efficiencies greater than 90 percent and, by relying on the evaporation, condensation, and surface tension characteristics of a refrigerant working fluid, are able to transfer up to 500 times as much heat per unit weight as can a solid thermal conductor of the same cross section. Heat pipes have no moving parts and operate silently and reliably over long lifetimes. Heat may be transferred to and from the pipe by radiation, convention, or conduction, and the pipes have been used with a variety of heat sources such as open flames, electric heaters, or nuclear heat sources.
No known prior art combines the efficiencies of the heat pipe in a manner to complement the functioning of an evaporative cooler as in the instant invention. It is the object of the present invention to combine these two technologies in a complementary manner so as to produce an evaporative cooling system with performance characteristics equivalent to those achieved by a compressor operated refrigeration system but without the initial, the operating, and the maintenance which accompany a refrigeration system.